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It Is All About The Family, Friends And… Food
If you read my previous post you will begin to understand that the connections that I have and that are made to those friends and relatives of my subject are crucial to infusing life into the sculpture.
If there is anything that can make this sculpture “sing,” pun intended, it is getting to know and hearing the stories of Norma. That is where you as the reader come in. You know Norma, you have experiences with Norma, share, tell, teach me who she is, and slowly I begin to feel and see Norma. Then I see it happen over and over again, that passion is transferred to the clay and in the end… to the viewer.
Here is one thing I learned yesterday- Norma was all about family. I should have known that. I mean she played music with her family. But yesterday I felt it. And in doing so, it was as if Norma was right there behind my shoulder introducing me to everyone.
Plans were made to go to the proposed site and take some photo reference of Angie, Norma’s daughter posing as Norma in Norma’s clothes. Somehow that got lost in the translation of the day, and instead the entire family Norma’s brothers Ernie, Bobby and Javier, long with his wife Gloria, Norma’s son Miles and his girl friend jackie and Norma’s Daughter Angie and her boyfriend Chris all met at the place where the sculpture will one day reside. Even Norma’s mom Elsa Zenteno came.
Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon, Chris (Angie’s boyfriend),
Ernie Zenteno, Gloria Zenteno, Javier Zenteno, Bobby Zenteno,
Elsa Zenteno (Mama Z)
Those not shown, but there earlier in the day. Miles Towns Zenteno
(Norma’s youngest son, who got the music genes) Jacki Davis (Miles girlfriend)
Instead of being there for a photo sitting to take reference for the sculpture, the family all shared their thoughts about the placement, pose and outfit that Norma should be wearing. There were a lot of ideas shared, and when thinking about it— they were shared with huge smiles and a great deal of excitement that was infectious. Somehow, I think Norma was probably that way—infectious in her charm, livelihood and presence. One of the brothers mentioned their playing and said something like there is no longer a … not sure the term he used, but when he said it a flood of pictures came to my mind. What was missing in this family band —the lead singer, the one that got the attention, that sparked the crowd on, flirted with the music and her brothers to bring a crescendo of intensity and involvement from both audience and musicians. I never had the opportunity of knowing Norma. Right now I am sorry I never got to see her live in her element, with her family, creating. I am sure it was something to experience.
We rescheduled the photo sitting for another day. The family has work to do, in that we we need to see the placement of the sculpture at night. This means that the family will have to go and stage the piece to see what it will look like under the lighting that is already there. They will take some photos and send them to me. Then, we did what close families do- we went and ate. I was so thrilled to be invited.
There is something about sitting down to a meal with the family for which I am creating a piece of art. Believe it or not, in my long career of creating sculpture, especially posthumous sculpture, I rarely get to do this. Many people I don’t even meet as they live in New England, or Alaska or another state. I am loving that the Zenteno family is here and so inviting. I may often appear quiet at the table, yes even after a margaritta, but I’m absorbing everything and thinking.
Norma’s mom shares a story of Norma when she was little and how she thought she would run faster than someone who road their bike. She tied herself to the bike to prove it and came home all torn up. She smiled, the smile of a mom remembering. I looked at Moma Z and felt her love for her daughter, her strength involved in raising such a large family of boys and one girl- Norma- the oldest. The endearing nature of the entire family toward Norma, and of total strangers that I have been introduced to. Many who meet me and hear about the sculpture project same Norma’s name, with that same family sparkle. This… this family, and friends, and love I can feel and inspires my muse. How can I possibly infuse it into the clay, it is more than I have felt in any of my posthumous commissions. OK Norma, I’ll need some assistance here.
More to come:
Please contribute and share the news of this project. With your help we can make this happen. For more information about donations please visit the Norma Zenteno Sculpture Page.
This is the documentation of Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon who created the Norma Zenteno Sculpture and Kippy for Zenteno Spirit and Barrio Dogs. You can find the process blog for this project at http://normasculpture.blogspot.com/
The Mold Making Process- John Goes To Pieces
Anyone unfamiliar with the bronze casting process pretty much freaks out when they see this part. We go to great lengths to get the sculpture prefect and then we have to cut it up all over again. How do I do that? With a reciprocating saw, knives and anything I can. The many pieces are seamed up using playing cards. Some things like the dog, I will cut apart later. We did the mold of the top of the dog, flipped him and this allowed me to add detail on his belly without standing on my head to do it. The mold making process is a long one. Usually t he foundry does this process, but here at B. Mongeon Sculpture Designs Studios we do it ourselves.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
Approval Of The Sculpture Of John Turner
This is the halfway point of this process. I know it feels like we have done a lot with the sculpture already. The milestone comes with the approval. I love when a client comes to the studio and sees a sculpture for the first time. There was a bit of work that we did on the sculpture of John after this point, and the dog changed considerably, but overall it was a great approval process. The client was pleased and we are on to the next part of the process. The mold making of John and his dog.
John was standing there when she walked back in.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
Moving Forward- The Dog
Along with these I had
about 10 movies of walking dogs.
The difficulty about creating a blog that documents the progress of a sculpture is that when you are knee deep in creating the sculpture you have very little time for blogging. So here we go, backdating some of these posts and letting you know the progress.
You can never have enough reference. It is something I say often in my life as a sculptor. I spent hours learning about seeing eye dogs, talking to the Seeing Eye in New Jersey, watching video of how a dog walks. I studied the anatomy of a walking dog and reviewed many movies. There were changes and modifications that we made after approval and I pulled the love of dogs, the love of some specific dogs and the love for seeing eye dogs into one clay sculpture that would be made into a bronze. This was no easy task. This dog probably had a little of my own love and loss. While creating it my family suffered a horrible tragedy. My daughter and son in law’s house burned down and their family dog, Sam was lost. Sam was a rescue dog that I fostered for years before they adopted her. So as I labored over this dog, I thought about Sam. Lots of love went into this dog. Here are some photographs of the progress of creating John’s dog.
sculpting means a little bit of acrobatics.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
carve, add clay, step back cut something off, move it, add clay.
This is what I do all day long.
the dog, adding clay, carving foam, moving
limbs. This is my sculptor’s dance.
and John’s hand must line up.
on the floor, it feel good to sit in a chair and work.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
Bringing John To Life In Clay
John has gone through a great deal of transformation. If you remember we had just received the foam armature of John in December. Here is some transitional photographs showing the process. This shows just a glimpse into the many, many hours of creating before approval of a sculpture. If you want to see the final results of the John Turner sculpture in clay be sure to check out the approval blog post.
Slowly I move around and down John. The foam
is covered with a foundry wax and a layer of clay.
A base coat is added and then thicker layers.
folds and capturing movement is the goal. Still,
there are other elements that we must add that
play a part in the scene. John’s hands are pivotal.
the right is holding a brief case, and the left
the harness. The position of these additional
elements may change the arms and the folds.
The brief case is much to heavy to put on him.
it would break his hand and arm. Putting these
elements together will take a lot of time and
consideration.
of course the dog. We juggle trying to have the
room to work on John, and needing the
interaction with the dog.
Off with his head! No, this is not just something from my previous Alice project. It is something I do with all of my sculptures. It is easier to flip his head around and see what is needed. I’ll can easily attach his head back to the body. I’ll do this many times. I also like having both printed photos and photos on my computer. I can zoom in on these.
watches tv while gamma works.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
The Energy In This Next Part Is Incredible
Moving on to the next part of this project. The foam does not look like much now. Poor pooch. It will soon be an amalgamation of the look, and energy of 8 seeing eye dogs. The creative energy on this part of the project nearly has me jumping out of my skin. Here is to…
1. Villa November 21,1953
2. Inky February 15, 1964
3. Pepper May 1, 1977
4. Gordy April 7, 1979
5. Steffie January 4,1989
6. Corinne September 20,1993
7. Robyn March 29, 2003
8. Eben May 23, 2014 So excited to get started on this part. I can feel the dogs. They have been having in the studio for months waiting patiently for their turn. I can also feel their love and commitment. What they have done, what they have provided. This is such an honor. Keep watching.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
Some relatives posted : “Hope this all goes well. I’m very excited. Each of those special dogs has been important in our lives beyond comprehension. They were unique, brilliant, loyal individuals. You’ve got a lot of greatness to work with!”
Night And Day Tag Team
Many pieces of the sculpture are cut off, added on, taken off and added again. You will see, after our final approval, that John and his dog will be cut apart one more time for mold making.
We have a night and day thing going. It is is also a tag team effort. I work late at nights and early morning and weekends, then my interns come in and clean up after me and smooth the clay. They really rock this part and make my life so much easier. Sometimes they can work on things that are cut off while I work on the torso.
I love listening to books while I work. It is funny. I have been overdosing on a young adult novel series about spirit animals. Just realized how significant that is to this project.
The hand on the left is holding the harness portion. I would have
loved to get a real harness and cast it. I tried, but The Light House
said they destroy them. I was sent one by the Turners, but I can’t
make a mold of it as it is very special. Having a harness to cast
would have saved me so many hours of work. Instead
we are fabricating one.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
Working Night and Day
Let me catch everyone up on the progress at the studio. We have been so busy working it is hard to write blog posts. The foam of John Turner came back. As I may have said, this foam is taken is from the small maquette that we scanned. Seems like a lot of work to do to get an enlargement that is really very vague in form. The reason it is like this is that milling can’t capture everything and the more time on the mill the more it costs. Also, what works as something small does not always work as something large. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the foam, it is here that everything comes to life. The foam and the maquette did two things.
- Gave us a pose from which to work.
- Helped us enlarge the sculpture in a more timely matter.
What we do with the foam.
- Secure the foam together using spray foam insulation
- Carve foam to give detail
- Cut foam and change positions of appendages to get a better movement of overall design
- Put a layer of wax on the foam
- Put a fine layer of clay on the foam
- Cut pieces again and arrange.
hurriedly stuck him together so others could see our intent.
This picture was taken around December 10th.
We changed a lot of things since this picture.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
Off With Their Heads!
Yes, it is true that I have just come from sculpting Alice In Wonderland. So, OFF WITH THEIR HEADS! may sound like I am reiterating a story. But for me, off with their head, and turning things upside down is not just something in Wonderland, but something I do in my own studio.
Alice in Wonderland is at the foundry in Santa Fe and expected delivery is Spring of 2017 in Houston. Pieces of Alice and her friends are about the studio, heads are rolling. We are recouping the clay from Wonderland and using some of it on John Turner. So don’t be surprised if there is a bit or magic and curiosity surrounding John.
Getting to Know a Man and A Smile.
How to capture a look of a man over so many years of life? His face changes, he has so many expressions. I especially love this photograph. I love how he smiles with his entire face. I’m busy working on a head, elsewhere someone is working on his boots and briefcase, while others put clay on a torso. It is great to go ring in the new year with John Turner. A foam dog sits in pieces under an upside down Christmas tree in my studio. I can actually hear it whining for attention.
I hope I can post pictures soon.
The most animated photos are those with his daughter. My heart just jumps when I see them.